Sunday, October 17, 2021

Scat, Urine and Vocal Displays


No, this is not a post about our old fraternity house. It's a post about Colorado. The state has lots of wildlife that is foreign to me. New Jersey had a surprising amount of critters in/around our suburbs - squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, birds, foxes, deer, an occasional bear, possum, raccoons and wild turkeys. But the Rockies are a bit different. In addition to most of the above, we have prairie dogs, moose and rattlesnakes. And coyotes (canis latrans). The coyotes are close. CLOSE. Our area is littered with lost dog/cat posters. One neighbor of mine laughed about it when we chatted one day. "The coyotes get all of them," he says. He used to live on the edge of the complex in the apartment we are renting for a few months and he would see sets of eyes at night in the bushes. We know a family in town whose cat got out in their fenced-in backyard one morning. A neighbor of theirs saw a coyote run off with it in its mouth a few minutes later. 

This news has triggered my wife's Hispanic panic. We are a month away from moving into our house, and she is convinced our 20-lb dog will soon be a coyote meal. So we are educating ourselves a bit. It turns out coyotes are more active and visible in the winter. Breeding season is January and February, so the males are preparing to mark their territory in the hopes of sinking their red rockets.  

How does coyote territory get marked, you may ask? With scat, urine and vocal displays! This is according to the fine folks from my town's Parks, Recreation and Open Space employees. Because I'm immature, I find the use of the word scat very amusing. There seems to be a plethora of less offensive alternatives - feces, dung, excrement, poop, waste, droppings, doodie, etc. Is scat really the most apt word in the Parks and Rec community? Somebody needs to email Leslie Knope and ask. 

To make this whole topic a bit more preposterous, residents are being taught what they can do to protect themselves and their pets. This act is called hazing. Honest to God. Not sure if there is paddling, deep knee bends or songs about Sigma Chi involved. 

So in addition to sidestepping coyote shit and hoping my fluff pile of a dog doesn't get eaten, I need to learn how to haze a coyote. Good times. If you want to dig in further on the topic, read here. Wish me luck. 

16 comments:

Juan Carlos said...

TR, you didn’t have to move to CO to worry about coyotes. The are in NJ too. There is even a breed of half-coyote, half-wolf, unimaginatively names the coywolf, to worry about.

And you may remember the local school official who marked his territory by depositing his scat on municipal sports fields. I’m hoping for that to be the plot of the Teen Wolf reboot.

rob said...

my dog chased a pair of foxes today. it's wild kingdom week here in the gheorghieverse.

zman said...

The dingo ate my baby.

If the coyotes take Rooney you can have zwoman's shitty dog. I'm tired of it, it adds no value.

Mark said...

I’ll let you know what kind of wild animals I see in New Orleans the next couple of days.

rootsminer said...

Zdog hasn’t melted zheart yet? I guess that’s a plot line for season 2.

I hung out and played some music with my man Stimulator J on Friday, and he has a dog that he found at the park. Took him home and spent a couple weeks trying to find his owners, to no avail.

TR said...

Well, I hope the hazing strategy for a coyowolf is the same, for your sake. And I think that principal had another warped agenda.

Whitney said...

Leicester notched a win yesterday. I think their newest fan will be a boon for their fortunes.

TR said...

My 14 y/o is a huge Fins fan who bought into all the playoff hype. He is demoralized at the moment.

rob said...

my daughter is doing a cheer recruiting clinic at the university of new hampshire. so i'm gonna spend the weekend before christmas in durham, nh. that seems like the perfect time to visit.

TR said...

Warm weather and many daylight hours. Enjoy.

Danimal said...

I am sorry to report I did not get to see Boz last night, but we did eat at Voodoo Dog this afternoon before splitting town. I had the Abe Frohman and a side of chili fries. Next time you visit Ron Desantis, I encourage you to give it a whirl.

TR said...

The Sausage King!

Marls said...

Portsmouth, NH is right down the road and is a fantastic town.

rob said...

joc pederson is a self-proclaimed bad motherfucker

Juan Carlos said...

My wife and I were invited to New Orleans for a friends bday weekend. We’ve been a few tines before and liked it but now my wife is chickening out over concerns over COVID.

For those of you who have been recently, what has it been like?

zman said...

RIP Colin Powell.